A classicist recently pointed out on social media that the ancient Greek notion of heroism is so different from the modern idea that mythological heroes like Odysseus must either be adapted for modern audiences, or else they end up looking at least somewhat villainous. It’s especially apparent when moderns try to adapt Hercules into what we would call a hero, and end up with a character who only barely resembles the one in the myths, because the ancient Greek word which is generally translated as “hero” has nothing to do with morality, self-sacrifice, etc. As a kid who loved both mythology and comic books, it was always a little jarring to see how differently mythic characters like Hercules were portrayed in the one vs the other. The most accurate depiction of Hercules on the big screen that I can recall was in Jason and the Argonauts, where he is clearly shown to be a bully, braggart, and delinquent who gets his friends killed and nearly wrecks the entire mission. Of course, the same movie elides Jason’s awfulness, and ends abruptly to avoid having to deal with the whole ugly business of Jason and Medea, which only goes to demonstrate our initial premise once again.
Posts Tagged ‘Greece’
Heroes of Song and Story
Posted in Current Events, Music, Philosophy, Words, tagged comics, Greece, Hollywood, imaginative fiction, language, video on August 10, 2026| 1 Comment »
In the News (#1635)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged adolescence, agency denial, artificial stupidity, cell phones, Censor Chic, censorship, cops, Crippling Thought, domestic violence, Don't Call It Trafficking, Facebook, fascism, Greece, I Spy, internet, law, Mad Libs, Panopticon, psychology, robots, scams, Shame Shame, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, teachers, TikTok, Walled Garden, Welcome to the Future, Wisconsin on May 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Without the constitutional safeguard of a warrant requirement, [cops] predictably…abuse their access to [surveillance] systems for things like stalking [women]. – Michael Soyfer
Don’t Call It Trafficking (#1463)
A baby step toward eradicating the noxious “troubled teen” industry:
Ron Wyden [has], introduced a Senate bill, the BRIDGES for Kids Act, to better regulate residential treatment centers – closing loopholes that have allowed for the abuse of vulnerable youth…follow[ing a two-year investigation] by the Senate Finance Committee…which…found that abuse, neglect and acute safety concerns…are “endemic” to the [“troubled teen” industry]…the Department of Health and Human Services would create a national public dashboard that would compile and publicly report on data like how often [victims] are restrained…secluded[, injured, or killed]…and…states would be required to look into significant complaints within two days…The bill would also no longer allow privately accredited facilities in 21 states to skip some licensing…and…would invest in community-centered alternatives, increasing federal support for…[young people] in the [foster] system placed with kin…
No information entered into an internet-connected device is actually private:
…therapy sessions on the telehealth platform Talkspace are…record[ed] and store[d to create]…“one of the largest mental health data banks in the world,” containing 140 million message exchanges. The end goal: training a soon-to-be-released [pseudo-]therapy [chat]bot…In a traditional therapy session, therapists might scribble only a few sentences recording a patient’s progress…by creating a transcript of the exact back-and-forth of a digital therapy session, Talkspace has created a new [way for the State and other malefactors]…to [invade] people’s private lives…Talkspace executives [pretend to] investors [that] data is anonymized, but [don’t tell them] such anonymity can [easily] be broken…by…court order…[while] in a[n ethic]al therapy session that wouldn’t be true…Talkspace executives e[ven lie]…that the company is compliant with…HIPAA…[which] the Electronic Frontier Foundation [points out was]…not [an actual protection even before the Trump regime started its data grab]…In 2022…Talkspace [was forced to admit to the US Senate]…that…the company [allows some] data [to be] used for ads. [It has also]…shar[ed the] personal information of New York City teens with Facebook, Amazon…Google, and Microsoft via website trackers…Talkspace [hides all this in convoluted language embedded deep in the fine print of] the company’s privacy policy…
Remember when ninnies thought realistic porn cartoons were the worst use for this technology?
Last week, Taylor Swift filed a trio of trademark applications to protect her image and voice…[because] deepfakes [of her] continue to proliferate across social media…Swift and other stars have recently had their likenesses used in scammy advertisements…a cluster of sponsored videos on TikTok…appear…to show Swift, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, and others promoting…fraud…[and] mal[ware designed]…to…[capture] the…[marks’] personal information…the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America [has] sued [Facebook for lying]…about its [supposed] efforts to crack down on scam ads…[while actually] profit[ing] by allowing them to proliferate…social media scams have surged overall, with Facebook scams accounting for the highest total of financial losses…
Scenes from the early days of a dark age:
Academic freedom continues to decline globally, with a marked fall in the US, according to the 2026 update to the Academic Freedom Index…academic freedom has slipped in 50 countries, with just nine [including Bangladesh, Syria, Thailand and Uzbekistan] registering improvement…[those in decline include] the UK…Portugal, Germany, Austria, Italy and Greece…the United States [in particular] has experienced a remarkably sharp drop…compared to other countries in Western Europe and North America…beg[inning] in 2020 and intensif[ying] last year, driven by…attacks by the Trump [regime against] faculty members, staff and students…The pressure on universities and research institutes in the US was more dramatic than in other countries such as Hungary, India and Turkey, where institutional autonomy declined more gradually…
With warrantless surveillance, no woman is safe from cops:
[Cops] across the US are [predictably] using automated license plate readers…to stalk [sexual prey]…there are already 14 cases across the country where cops…abused ALPR access to follow spouses, exes, and even complete strangers…with the majority of the…cases coming after 2024…when…Flock S[urveillance] initiated a massive expansion into over 4,000 US cities…In Milwaukee, for example, a…[typical and representative cop]…named Josue Ayala resigned after…using Flock to track his…[girlfriend and her] ex, almost 180 times over just two months. The two victims only became aware they were being stalked [by using]…HaveIBeenFlocked.com…Flock [now infests] over 6,000 cities across the US, with over 76,000 license plate readers and counting…[so] the number of active ALRP abuse cases…is [undoubtedly very high]…
Western nations are competing to out-China China:
The Greek government is pressing ahead with a [scheme] to [attempt to] ban anonymity on social media, aiming to curb [criticism of politicians, which they slander as “]hate speech[“. But because Greek pigs and spooks have]…attempted – unsuccessfully – to identify users who [say things politicians don’t like]…the…[government wants to] find a way to require platforms to verify the identity of [people who post via] accounts…[belch]ing…the [meaningless catchphrase “]real person[” as part of a song-and-dance intended to transfer blame for government-mandated surveillance]…to…platforms…[while absurdly characterizing inflicting violence on people for their ideas as “]safeguarding democracy[“]…
Once this falls flat on its face, they’ll next try to criminalize VPNs.
Do I really need to say, “Don’t give your credit card to a fucking chatbot”?
…there are enough digital security problems out there…with[out so-called “]agentic AI[“, meaning chatbots which can fuck up idiots’ lives directly instead of merely urging them to do so. But]…now…the authentication-focused industry association known as the FIDO Alliance [has] said…it will launch a pair of working groups to develop industry standards for validating and protecting payments and other transactions carried out by [chatbo]ts. The goal is to pro[tect people stupid enough to give a chatbot access to their finances from obvious perils such as]…phish[ing or losing control of the chatbot to hackers]…The standards would…include cryptographic tools that digital services could use to confirm [chatbo]ts are accurately and legitimately carrying out an authenticated person’s instructions, as well as [data harvest]ing frameworks to give users, merchants, and other service providers the ability to validate transactions…initiated by [chatbo]ts…
Why are so many modern journalists so bad at pronoun usage, especially the second-person pronoun? Because I guarantee you that no chatbot will ever “be buying…stuff for” me, “soon” or otherwise. But I guess that’s too much to ask of some kid who thinks $100 is a reasonable price for fucking sneakers.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
In the News (#1449)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Moral Cancer, Australia, consensual crime, cops, drugs, Eavesdropping, Greece, If Men Were Angels, Illinois, Kenya, law, Long Hidden, nanny state, New York, New Zealand, Panopticon, Permanent Record, porn, rape, Rooted in Racism, scams, surveillance, Tennessee, Texas, Turkey, United Kingdom on June 26, 2024| 1 Comment »
Illegal drugs are cheaper, more readily available, more potent, [and] more widely used than they were 20 years ago. – James Martin
“Inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” is a helluva way to say “molesting a 12-year-old”:
Robert Morris, founding pastor of Gateway [mega]Church in Southlake, Texas…has confessed to…sexually abusing [Cindy Clemishire] over multiple years beginning when she was 12…Morris [burbled a lot of evangelical buzzwords like]…repented…walked in purity and accountability…blessing…and…forgiveness…[but] Clemishire [explained]…that…when Morris began abusing her…he…was a 20-year-old traveling evangelist…[already] married…[with a young] son…Morris…[betrayed] her family[‘s]…friends[hip after being] invited into their home and…repeatedly abused her in Texas and Oklahoma…[while telling] his wife that he was merely “counseling” her…For years…she has been warning churches…about Morris because she doesn’t believe she’s the only one who suffered his abuse…
Cops aren’t the only violent profession whose members feel sexually entitled:
…hundreds of Kenyan women [have] filed complaints with the UK military over the years, a[fter being raped by British soldiers]…in the remote villages where the British Army trains its soldiers in Kenya. The British Army Training Unit, Kenya (BATUK), is headquartered in the town of Nanyuki…[and] Britain pays Kenya about $400,000 a year to allow its soldiers to train…mostly in the expansive wildlife conservancies in Laikipia and Samburu counties. Kenya renewed the defense pact in 2021 despite strong local opposition…[due to numerous] allegations of rape and other crimes, including murder, by British soldiers deployed there [since] the 1950s…hundreds of women from the mostly pastoralist Maasai and Samburu communities who accused the British Army of rapes in the 1970s and 80s…were represented by the British lawyer Martyn Day in a landmark civil case in London in the early 2000s…[but] in 2007, Britain’s Ministry of Defense dismissed claims…brought by 2,187 women…[claiming] the…evidence appeared to have been fabricated…[and refusing to] conduct DNA tests on any of the 69 mixed-race children…born from rape by British soldiers…[but as they] can now be sued in Kenyan courts…as part of a new addition to the 2021 defense pact…lawyer Kelvin Kubai has signed up more than 300 of the women who previously brought rape claims and is working to reintroduce the case in Kenyan courts…
Never forget that this barbarity began using the excuse of “fighting human trafficking”:
The Greek coastguard has caused the deaths of dozens of migrants in the Mediterranean over a three-year period…including nine who were deliberately thrown into the water. The [others]…died as a result of being forced out of Greek territorial waters, or taken back out to sea after reaching Greek islands…The Greek government has long…forced returns – pushing people back towards Turkey, where they have crossed from, which is illegal under international law. But this is the first time the…number of…fatalities…[due directly to] the Greek coastguard’s actions [has been calculated]…
This is too useful a tool of state control for the rulers to give it up:
A new lawsuit says that Illinois’ widespread use of…automatic license plate readers…violates the Fourth Amendment…because it breaches citizens’ reasonable expectations of privacy…”Defendants are tracking anyone who drives to work in Cook County—or to school, or a grocery store, or a doctor’s office, or a pharmacy, or a political rally, or a romantic encounter, or family gathering—every day…without any reason to suspect anyone of anything, and are holding onto those whereabouts just in case they decide in the future that some citizen might be an appropriate target”…Illinois’ highway [panopticon] began in 2019 [as so many civil liberties abominations do,] with the passage of [a law bearing a crime victim’s name]…Illinois State Police [started with] a $12.5 million state grant in 2021…which was more than doubled in June 2022…[so far] Illinois…has purchased 652 license plate cameras, of which 340 are installed in Cook County…
Nashville [cop] Sean Herman was recently arrested…weeks after it was revealed that he appeared in a viral OnlyFans clip in [his magical clown costume]. He faces two felony official misconduct charges for [using the clown suit for something other than terrorizing people]…If found guilty, Herman could face prison…[cop shop busybodies] reportedly “discovered the video and identified him as the person in [the magical clown costume], seen in the video from the chest down, who took part in a mock traffic stop in an OnlyFans skit during which he groped the exposed breast of the female driver”…
Since March of last year, the Australian state of Victoria has been rocked by a series of [murders,] arsons and firebombings…in an escalating turf war between rival gangs…the drug at the center of this conflict: nicotine…[prohibitionists prai]se…Australia…for its graphic warnings on cigarette packs, extremely high cigarette taxes, and strict prohibitions on e-cigarettes…[which together constitute] a form of “de facto prohibition”…[so] predictably…the share of tobacco sold illegally…has…doubled [in recent years] to…nearly a quarter of Australian sales…There are 1.8 million vapers in Australia and about nine out of 10 of them source their vapes illegally…[either by buying] e-cigarette components and…nicotine liquid from abroad…or [by getting] disposable vapes manufactured cheaply in China…Australia’s…response…is to crack down even harder…in…contrast…New Zealand, which has similarly high cigarette taxes but embraces a much more liberal approach to vaping…now boasts one of the world’s lowest rates of smoking…
Even cops are starting to admit Shotspotter is a boondoggle:
New York City [has wasted tens of millions] on gunshot detection technology that rarely works…ShotSpotter…uses microphones and…software in an attempt to detect the sound of gunshots…When a sound triggers the system, ShotSpotter alerts the police department, and officers are dispatched to the scene…[but] an analysis…found that 87% of the time [cop]s were dispatched to a scene where there was no evidence of a shooting…“The evidence shows that NYPD is wasting precious time and money on this technology and needs to do a better job managing its resources,” [said City Comptroller Brad] Lander… “Chasing down car backfires and construction noise does not make us safer”…It marks the latest report calling the technology’s efficacy into question. A 2021 audit by Chicago’s Office of Inspector General found that of more than 50,000 alerts there, only 9.1% resulted in evidence of a gun-related offense…Houston Mayor John Whitmire also said he would cancel the city’s contract with the company, telling the Houston Chronicle that it is a “gimmick”…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
The Last Angry Tweets
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged abortion, blogging, Bluesky, Childish Things, consensual crime, cops, cult of the child, fantasy, genitalia, Greece, illegal aliens, imaginative fiction, internet, language, law, libraries, politicians, propaganda, psychology, racism, rape, sex offender registry, sex rays, STEM, Twitter, yellow journalism, yin and yang on April 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »
In the News (#1305)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, Arkansas, California, Cooties, cops, disease, Fallen Idol, Georgia, Give Them an Inch..., Greece, hotels, illegal aliens, law, LGBT rights, Louisiana, Panopticon, politicians, porn, prisons, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, Rooted in Racism, sex rays, surveillance, The Last Shall Be First, Torture Chamber, United Kingdom on January 18, 2023| 2 Comments »
Silicon Valley lobbyists are…trying to avoid the real debate: whether technology this dangerous should even exist. – Fight for the Future
Anti-sexworker bigotry harms all women:
An Airbnb host was caught on camera threatening to “smack” a woman in the face and calling her a “prostitute” before telling her no one would believe her if she complained…Yet despite complaints to Airbnb and local police, the man has faced no sanction more than four months on…Airbnb claimed it had suspended the listing, but several others from the same landlord – including one in the same building – are still available to book as of 6 January. The woman and her cousin…were staying at the flat in Somerset…[when] at the end of August they say they received a phone call from the landlord threatening to physically attack them unless they left…he…the[n]…let himself into the flat…threatened them again, made racist remarks and pinned one of them against the wall…He told them…“You are prostitutes operating from this apartment”…Both women deny…that they were doing sex work on the premises, saying they only had a few friends to visit during their stay…
Probably not the outcome prosecutors expected:
Former adult film star Ron Jeremy is suffering from “severe dementia” and will be declared incompetent to stand trial on multiple charges of rape later this month…weeks before Jeremy’s trial was slated to begin last year, his defense attorney, Stuart Goldfarb, [report]ed…his client did not recognize him…mental health experts called on by both prosecutors and…defense…have determined…there is no evidence he is faking his symptoms…dementia is a progressive and degenerative illness from which Jeremy is unlikely to recover…the experts reached their conclusion based on a review of medical documents and interviews with Jeremy, his relatives and several…[screw]s who interacted with him while in [jail]. Some of Jeremy’s relatives apparently suspected he suffered from dementia before his 2020 arrest…Jeremy is likely to be placed in a state-run hospital…
Perhaps Alabama’s state bird should be the ostrich:
The Alabama Department of C[ramming Human Beings into Filthy Cage]s will no longer track the number of…deaths [in its cages] by month…the department ended [2022]…with 225 deaths…[Chris] England, a member of the prison oversight committee, says now is not the time for less transparency…He wants to…require them to report more often..the Governor’s Office…[claims less frequent reporting is actually “]more accurate[“]…
Cops really don’t care how many false positives these systems shit out:
Instead of enjoying a late Thanksgiving meal with his mother in Georgia, Randal Reid spent nearly a week in jail in November after he was falsely [accused of grand larceny] by Louisiana [cops on the basis of] facial recognition technology…Reid…[was] misidentified as one of three people who allegedly stole over $10,000 in Chanel and Louis Vuitton purses from a pair of shops via bogus credit card purchases…[and arrested] by…Georgia…[cops during a traffic stop]…“They told me I had a warrant out of Jefferson Parish. I said, ‘What is Jefferson Parish?,’” Reid recalled. “I have never been to Louisiana a day in my life…”
Greek prosecutors…[are putting] humanitarians on trial for search-and-rescue efforts that are protected under international human rights law and Greek law…The [latest] trial is…against…Sarah Mardini…Sean Binder [ans 22 others]…is riddled with procedural flaws that undermine their rights to due process and a fair trial…“Greek authorities…are going after people for saving lives the authorities didn’t want them to save,” said Bill Van Esveld…[of] Human Rights Watch…prosecutors…split the misdemeanor charges from felony charges in the case so the misdemeanors could be tried before expiring under Greece’s five-year statute of limitations…The misdemeanor charges…include espionage and forgery…based on humanitarians’ efforts to identify migrant boats in distress…[while] the…felony case misrepresents…search-and-rescue…operations as human smuggling by a criminal organization…
The Last Shall Be First (#1246)
The war on trans people has expanded to include drag queens:
Arkansas [politician] Gary Stubblefield…[has] filed a bill…that would classify drag performances as…”adult-oriented business,” along with escort agencies…adult book…or video store[s]… massage establishment[s, etc. The bill would also restrict all]…adult-oriented business[es from] be[ing] located on public property or anywhere where a minor could [possibly] view [them]…
It would be remiss of me to fail to point out that this wouldn’t be a big deal if sex work weren’t so stigmatized; maybe the queer community should’ve supported sex worker rights as we’ve been urging them to do for the past 20 years.
Why bother with license plate readers when fools will pay to be tracked?
A team of security researchers managed to gain “super administrative access” into Reviver, the company behind California’s new digital license plates which launched last [October]. That access allowed them to track the physical GPS location of all Reviver customers and change a section of text at the bottom of the license plate designed for personalized messages to whatever they wished…“An actual attacker could remotely update, track, or delete anyone’s REVIVER plate,” Sam Curry, a bug bounty hunter, wrote…Reviver is the sole provider of these plates, [which] are legal to drive nationwide, and…[cost] between $20 and $25 a month…Users can digitally update the lower section of their license plate to display different messages…[such as] “Go Team!” An accompanying app can also update a user if their car moves when it is supposed to be parked…the license plate will then display the text “stolen.” Reviver promises “continuous rollout of new features,” including automatic toll payment, parking payment, roadside assistance, and vehicle diagnostics…Reviver [calls this tracking device]…“security” [which] offers “true peace of mind”…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
In the News (#1151)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Australia, censorship, consensual crime, cops, Disaster, Facebook, fantasy, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Honduras, hysteria, illegal aliens, internet, King of the Hill, law, Monsters, politicians, porn, propaganda, racism, rape, Rooted in Racism, streetwalkers, Texas, The Last Shall Be First, The Next Target, transgender, Under Every Bed, violence vs. sex workers, Virginia on July 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Sex work is a legitimate form of work and should be regulated through standard business laws, like all other industries. – Melissa Horne
Human trafficking is something that continues to happen…here in the City of Albany [Georgia. Hysteria ramped up after two women left town]…and [hysterics decided]…the[y] could have been part of human trafficking [sic]…[even though] police don’t believe the two cases are [even] related…Leah Dee [is a rather pathetic attention-seeker who] makes it her mission to [spread silly masturbatory fantasies about]…human trafficking…and [harass women while calling it]…rescue…Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards [bloviated that] “Albany, itself, is a hub”…and [shared his favorite wanking fantasies about how] predators typically operate in broad daylight…at sporting events, malls, grocery stores, and more…starting off with a “Gorilla Pimp”…
The Last Shall Be First (#631)
SCOTUS makes its disinterest in potty-obsession quite clear:
The Supreme Court…dec[ided]…to…leav[e] a lower court ruling intact that says it’s unconstitutional for a school district to try to force a transgender student to continue using the bathroom facilities corresponding to their sex at birth…the…Court rejected [yet another attempt by the…Gloucester County [Virginia] School Board…[to reverse a federal court ruling in favor of] Gavin Grimm…the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia…in August 2019…granted a summary judgment affirming Grimm’s position…In August 2020, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit affirmed this decision with a 2–1 vote. In February of this year, the school board petitioned the Supreme Court to again take up this case…[but] the Supreme Court dec[lined to] get involved again…
Facebook didn’t think the face-eating leopards it wanted would eat its face:
…the Texas Supreme Court denied Facebook’s liability immunity for third party content based on Section 230…quoting FOSTA/SESTA to [spin a masturbatory fantasy about]…“websites that facilitate traffickers in advertising the sale of unlawful sex acts with sex trafficking victims.” The opinion…denied Facebook’s motion to…dismiss…three [predatory lawsuits based in FOSTA by ambulance-chasers claiming to represent]…“victims of sex trafficking who became entangled with their abusers through Facebook”…
Hanad Abdi Mohammad, a Somali who saved 31 people of a smuggling ship that sank off the Greek island of Lesbos in December, has been sentenced to 142 years in prison, after being charged with human trafficking…However, he [will “only”] serve a total of 20 years behind bars, the maximum allowed by the [Greek] criminal code…Mohammad is one of several asylum seekers who has received a[n outrageous sentence]…for facilitating the illegal entry of [refugees]…Last year, two Afghan men…received 50-year sentences for the same reasons…the turkish smuggler that transported them abandoned the boat and that Mohammad tried to save them after a Turkish Coast Guard ship forced him into Greek waters. [All but] two of the migrants were [denied the right] to testify in [Mohammad’s defense using the excuse of] coronavirus…
Legal Is as Legal Does (#1054)
Victoria will join a growing list of jurisdictions in the world to decriminalise the sex industry if state MPs adopt recommendations aimed at safeguarding workers and reducing stigma…Consumer Affairs Minister Melissa Horne said…the government was working towards the decriminalisation of the industry as a priority…The proposed changes stem from a 2019 parliamentary review of laws governing sex work, led by Reason Party MP Fiona Patten…[which] recommends…full decriminalisation…including street-based…work, and regulating it through the Occupational Health and Safety Act…[instead of] police…
State violence vs trans women in Latin America is starting to get attention:
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, a regional court based in Costa Rica, has ordered the Honduran government to continue its investigation into the [2009 rape and murder] of [trans sex worker Vicky] Hernández…by [cops who used]…a curfew [as excuse for the atrocity. Naturally] the government’s lawyers denied its [cops were the perpetrators despite eyewitness testimony, but]…the court…ruled [otherwise]…
Prohibitionists’ next target isn’t just Pornhub; it’s all online sex work:
…German authorities want to force the hosting provider of the porn website xHamster to lock out German users. A year ago, the State [Censorship] Agency…in North Rhine-Westphalia began to issue porn portals such as PornHub with an ultimatum: Either they [censor their content using the excuse of “]youth protection[” opt-in software]…or [else]…porn companies argue that they label their websites according to an international standard designed to make it easy for parents to [censor] their children’s devices. However, German legislation takes the opposite approach: Portals that [puritans decl]are harmful to minors should only be accessible if [prospective] users are [willing to surrender private information to prove they are] of legal age…[the threats are the brainchildren of arch-censor] Tobias Schmid, [a politician who has proudly declared himself obsessed with “Ordnung” (order)]…
In the News (#1129)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged BDSM, Belgium, California, Canada, cops, cosmetic surgery, disease, Do As I Say, domestic violence, drugs, Europe, France, Germany, Greece, HIV Cure, Italy, Like Houses, Little Boxes, New Jersey, New York, politicians, psychology, rape, restaurants, Rough Trade, scams, Swedish model, The More the Better, To Molest and Rape, transgender, United Kingdom, universal criminality, violence vs. sex workers on April 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »
[Pandemic] measures [seem to] constitute the fulfillment of preexisting authoritarian tendencies. – J.D. Tuccille
I hope this makes Swedish criminalization fans extremely uncomfortable:
A…[typical and representative] Toronto [cop]…solicit[ed] a sex…worker…[Travis Houston implicitly threatened her with a gun] and told her that he was a [cop, but instead of submitting she]…demanded that he leave…He was charged with weapons dangerous [sic], obtaining sexual services and mischief [but also rewarded with a paid vacation]…
…financial domination [is] a form of B.D.S.M. [sic] that has flourished during the pandemic, when many sex workers and their customers have migrated online because of social distancing..The concept is simple, even if the allure is not immediately self-evident: “finsubs” (short for “financial submissives”) send monetary “tributes” to a financial dominatrix…in exchange for being humiliated and degraded…
Can we not all agree something is wrong without giving the state another excuse for violence?
…antics now considered merely caddish or immoral—like lying to a prospective sex partner about one’s relationship status, social standing, or future intentions—would count as criminal sexual misconduct…[under a] bill…sponsored by [a gaggle of]…New York [politicians which would criminalize sex]…”obtained with…the use of…deception, fraud, concealment or artifice”…Women could be guilty for lying about contraceptive use or menstrual cycles, and men for lying about having a vasectomy. Trying to win over a date by saying you have a better job than you actually do, live in a nicer place, or went to a better school could become a crime if that date sleeps with you…Someone might try to sue or press charges based on the idea that makeup, Botox, boob jobs, and similar measures to enhance one’s appearance should count as illegal artifice that negates consent. It also seems likely that people could attempt to use the law against transgender…people…
As I pointed out in the subtitle-linked article, this would make prostitution stings legally rape, but no cop would ever actually be prosecuted for it. Overbroad laws, no matter how good they may sound to some, are only ever used to increase the power of those who already have it at the expense of those who don’t.
A former employee of…Panda Express…was required to strip down to her underwear and hug a partially clad co-worker during a “cult-like ritual” at a 2019 training seminar sponsored by the company as a prerequisite to promotion…At the start, attendees were told to sit down and not talk, and were left in isolation for a full hour before a man stormed in, yelling in Spanish and berating them for sitting there and doing nothing…participants were prohibited from using their cellphones, there was no clock in the room and the doors and windows were all covered with black cloth…the woman…was forced to strip down to her underwear under the guise of trust building…while, Alive Seminars staff were openly ogling the women in their state of undress…Attendees…were confined in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation…[and not even allowed] to use the restroom…[even] to throw up…
Another silver lining for the COVID pandemic:
A new HIV vaccine, based on the Moderna COVID-19 inoculation, has shown a 97% antibody response rate in Phase I clinical trials…If approved, this vaccine could become the first stage of a multi-step strategy to combat HIV and other viral diseases. The vaccine successfully stimulated the production of rare immune cells needed to generate antibodies against HIV…
Government can always be counted on to use any excuse to expand tyranny:
…the…world that is more-policed and less-free than it was a year ago…Protests continued across the U.K. over…a proposed law that would increase police powers…[after a cop] murder[ed] Sarah Everard…[in] France…[t]ens of thousands…protest[ed] legislation that would restrict people from publishing identifiable images of [cops]…police have [brutalized] demonstrators in countries including Belgium, France (again), Greece, Germany, Italy, and elsewhere. Mounted police in Brussels trampled a woman at an anti-lockdown party, before opening up with water cannon. In Athens, [a cops beat]…a man…to enforce a…lockdown…”Across the world in 2020, citizens experienced the biggest rollback of individual freedoms ever undertaken by governments during peacetime (and perhaps even in wartime),” [wrote] The Economist…and…at least some countries want to permanently increase the status and power of police…
Notice how often rapist cops’ victims are underage?
A [typical and representative New Jersey cop] and [known lecher has been] sexually assaulting a [girl] for five years, starting when she was 15…Tyrone Rolls…was charged…with sexual assault [but also rewarded with a paid vacation. As usual, “authorities” are weirdly fixated on whether]…he was [wearing his magical clown costume while committing the rapes]…The [victim finally gathered the courage to] report…Rolls [after he slapped her]…and knocked her to the ground…
The Mysteries
Posted in History, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged Day of the Dead, drugs, Greece, holidays, psychology, Rome, Thanatopsis on November 1, 2020| 3 Comments »
Death is what gives life meaning, and fighting excessively against it is as childish and futile as the behavior of a toddler who refuses to let another child take his place on the carousel once his ride is done. – “Thanatopsis”
Every year on the Day of the Dead I write about the inevitability and goodness of Death. Yes, I said “goodness”; as I wrote in “Eternity“, “Eternal life wouldn’t be a gift; it would be a horror literally beyond imagining.” I’ve never been especially afraid of death; part of that is due to the fact that “I was a strange, wild, moody Wednesday Addams of a child, born on Halloween night and fascinated with horror lore and imagery. Autumn was both my native season and the one in which I felt most comfortable…” The rest, of course, was a combination of chronic depression and ruthless pragmatism; for much of my life I endured long periods in which I would have viewed death as a welcome release, and even when I was in a cheerier frame of mind I was still rational enough to recognize that the continuance of life for any given creature requires the regular deaths of countless others. But it wasn’t until my forties that I started become really philosophical about mortality, and only five years ago did I really start to deeply ponder its spiritual dimension. The latter development was not merely due to age, though that undoubtedly helped put me in the right headspace; a catalyst was required, and that catalyst was edible cannabis. I started experimenting with what are typically and not-entirely-correctly called “recreational drugs” near the end of 2014, and though several of them gave me very rewarding experiences with others, it was the psychedelic experiences I had from using largish doses of edible cannabis alone (or more accurately, without human company) that opened the doors to the Infinite and gave me a perspective on death, the soul and my place in Everything which eventually led to a spiritual peace unlike any I had ever known. I was far from alone; those who refuse to be bound by the Puritanism which has trapped modern humanity in a death-grip have for decades tried to tell everyone else about the healing and mind-expanding power of psychedelic drugs, and since the 1990s studies have increasingly demonstrated the power of such substancies to alleviate depression, PTSD and other mental health issues. But this is not a new discovery, it is, rather, a rediscovery of truths known to our ancestors millenia ago:
…sacred tripping was not simply a function of prehistoric religious rituals and shamanism, but an integral, even central part, of the world of the ancient Greeks….The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion With No Name, by Brian Muraresku…shows…the centrality of psychedelic use…in an elaborate and mysterious once-in-a-lifetime ceremony at the Temple of Eleusis, a short distance from Athens. We’ve long known about…the Mysteries…and the rite of passage they offered — because it’s everywhere in the record. Many leading Greeks and Romans went there, including Plato and Marcus Aurelius…The Greeks and Romans went to Eleusis only once in their lives, like the Muslim hajj, to participate in a nocturnal rite, and were sworn to secrecy as to what went on. But the constant theme in the ancient literature around this ritual is that it somehow took the sting of death away. “Death is for mortals no longer an evil, but a blessing” was the phrase attached to it…Historians and classicists have long pondered what this meant and what exactly happened, but all agree that it required drinking a special brew. And new discoveries of ancient chalices and cups — and new techniques of testing ancient residue — have begun to suggest what made these archaic potions so special…they contained countless herbs and spices and ingredients, among them, critically, elements of ergot, a fungus that infected barley and rye and had potent hallucinogenic effects…Another re-examined excavation in Pompeii found the preserved remains at the bottom of large barrels jars dated to 79 CE: chemical analysis found it included seeds of cannabis, opium, and hallucinogenic nightshades. The recipe for the psychedelic brew and the preparation of it was restricted to women, who passed on the secret recipes from mother to daughter, and was the particular preserve of older women. The effect, we’re told in the sources, was transformative: you saw past life and death, you became unafraid of your own mortality, you gained perspective and inner peace…
In the News (#1067)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged consensual crime, cops, disease, Do As I Say, fantasy, fascism, Florida, Georgia, Give Them an Inch..., Greece, Guinea Pigs, hysteria, I Spy, illegal aliens, New Hampshire, politicians, porn, racism, Saving Them from Themselves, scams, sex offender registry, surveillance, The Implosion Begins, The Widening Gyre, Welcome to Our Updates, welcome to our world on August 26, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Prohibitions don’t eliminate things. They drive them underground. – Jeffrey Miron
You mean laws can’t stop consensual business transactions? Who would have thought?
…underground gyms appear to be popping up everywhere, from LA to New Jersey…Governments can legislate all they want, but prohibiting stuff with eager buyers and sellers is super hard…and…When markets get pushed underground, quality control tends to go down. In the case of drugs, this means potentially finding rat poison in your weed. When it comes to gyms in the COVID-19 era, it means potentially creating fitness environments that are even more likely to spread the virus than if they were legal and regulated…
European anti-migration policies grow steadily more horrible:
At least 1,072 migrants were sailed to the edge of Greece’s water territory on inflatable life rafts and abandoned by Greek authorities…[one of the victims reported] that on July 26, she and 22 others including babies were taken by masked Greek officials from a detention centre on…Rhodes while it was dark outside….they were left on a “rudderless, motorless life raft” and were later rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard…abandon[ing] migrants at sea is illegal under international law…François Crépeau, former United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants [called the act]…”a human rights and humanitarian disaster”…
Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#933) 
I love it when they feed on their own:
…[Florida cop] Stephen Utter…was arrested this month for trying to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex…Utter was made immediately aware of the [fictional] girl’s age before he began to sexually groom…a cop [fantasy roleplaying] an actual child…Utter sent explicit messages detailing the sexual acts he wished to perform…Once he’d incriminated himself enough, police moved in to arrest him…
Saving Them From Themselves (#987)
On the second day of virtual classes for Henry County schools, the county’s police department [issued a threat to] students…“If you stream pornography in an online class…the…Sheriff’s Office will find you and charge you with life-[destroying] charges…[including] child pornography [and] child molestation [?]…and [you will be condemned] to [the]…sex offender [registry]”…
When it comes to mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:
A newly released document shows the U.S. Secret Service went through a…social media surveillance company to purchase the location information on American’s movements, no warrant necessary. Babel Street is a shadowy organization that offers a product called Locate X that…gather[s supposedly] anonymized location data from a host of popular apps that users have unwittingly installed on their phones…U.S. Customs and Border Protection ha[s] a contract to use Locate X and…the Secret Service ha[s] used…it…[since at least] September 28, 2017…
Courtesy of Tryst, here’s Maya Morena on the gang of malignant sociopaths called Deliverfund:
DeliverFund is a…private intelligence agency that provides data to [cops]…they combine counterterrorism (War on Terror), anti-drug, anti-immigrant, and anti-poverty tactics to target the sex industry…[and] track sex workers online…[one of their collaborators is] ShadowDragon, which…[scrapes] escort sites [to] collect data [from] sex worker’s advertisements to [give it to cops, usin the excuse that]…”they’re all secretly controlled by traffickers”…To them we aren’t really people who need to work, to pay bills and live, we are examples of human trafficking…
The Democrats won’t admit that they are just as responsible for this as the GOP:
QAnon [follower] Alpalus Slyman pushed his Honda Odyssey past 110 mph while his five children screamed in the back…and [cops]…pursued him…[he prayed to] Donald Trump…on a livestream [and shouted]… “QAnon, help me!”…Slyman appears to have been convinced …that the police were coming to abduct [his children]…after he accused [one daughter] and his wife…of being agents of the [“sex trafficking”] cabal that QAnon believers say controls the world…he…told his children, who ranged from 8 months to 13 years old…that a video of Hillary Clinton and aide Huma Abedin eating childrens’ brains was discovered on Anthony Weiner’s laptop…the chase only ended when Slyman crashed into a [copmobile]…then drove his minivan into a tree…His five children were unharmed…a group of QAnon believers are now actively encouraging parents estranged from their children to steal those children back from child protective services…
In the News (#957)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, Arizona, California, Cambodia, Change a Few Words, cops, drugs, Elephant in the Parlor, Facebook, fascism, FBI, Florida, Greece, homosexuality, Illinois, Islam, law, License To Rape, Massachusetts, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, Oklahoma, Oregon, Panopticon, Pennsylvania, politicians, porn, pregnancy, prisons, propaganda, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, Rotting Fruit, Russia, scams, surveillance, Texas, That Old Black Magic, Torture Chamber, underage, United Arab Emirates, Welcome to Our Updates, welcome to our world, Where Are the Protests?, witchcraft on July 27, 2019| 1 Comment »
It seems odd … to make…integrity of…intimate body cavities dependent on who it is that does the…penetrating. – Judge John Z. Lee
A lot of editing was needed here:
…Portland Police [are]…merging [the] human trafficking [gang]…with its [vice gang. Prohibitionists]…are concerned the consolidation will result in [fewer pigs raping and persecuting sex workers, but in reality the point is to have more cops harassing women and fewer investigating actual labor exploitation]…
We don’t see many good articles about “Straight Pride” events, but the ones we do see are hilarious:
Netflix has threatened the organisers of Boston’s Straight Pride with legal action after they listed the streaming platform as a “prospective corporate sponsor” for their anti-LGBT+ event. Netflix sent a cease-and-desist order to Super Happy Fun America, the group organising the parade, which has several ties with…white nationalist organisations…Super Happy Fun America were ordered to “immediately” remove the Netflix logo from all materials associated with the event, with the threat of further legal action if this is not done within 24 hours…The parade organisers hit back at Netflix on their website in a post entitled “Netflix hates the straight” which accuses Netflix’s legal team of being staffed by “gay supremacists”…Super Happy Fun America previously tried to use Brad Pitt as their movement’s “mascot,” but were forced to stop following a complaint from Pitt’s representatives…
Our government refers to this as “correction”:
Screenshots of a private group chat…show several [screws] at a Florida prison making [vile] remarks about an inmate beating days before a video of that [beating]…was uploaded to YouTube…by inmates using a [hidden] cell phone…the sister of the [beaten] inmate…and a Florida [politician] who interviewed the inmate in person…have [reported that] officials at the institution [are lying]…about what transpired and attempting to cover up the [flagrant] abuse…Otis Miller [is now locked up in a different stack of cages]…The video [clearly] show[s a gang of screws]…punching [Miller] in the head…[even though] he…is [only] five feet tall and weighs 140 pounds…the [screws clearly took] pride in the damage they had inflicted on [a helpless human being, oinking out such pleasantries as]…“That [inmate] looks like beetle juice [sic]”…“I want more lol”…[and] “Fuck him”…Department of Corrections Secretary Mark Inch responded with [the usual denials and bullshit]…
Remember that witchcraft charges were once a popular way to persecute sex workers:
Two residents of the city of Gudermes were [arrested by cops in] Chechnya…for practicing…witchcraft…persecution of medicine men and psychics began in Chechnya six years ago, but in recent years has intensified…The detained women may be facing criminal prosecution…Sorcery and magic contradict Islamic dogma…but…the current campaign…is less connected with religious motives, and to a greater extent with comparatively stronger police control…believes Mikhail Roshchin…of…the Russian Academy of Sciences…
Other modern “wars on witchcraft” are taking place in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia (including online censorship), and to a lesser extent the UK (subtitle link).
Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#684)
This is the worst crime I’ve ever seen “sex addiction” used as a defense for:
A…son of a priest blamed a porn overload for him raping and killing a California scientist who vanished from a conference in Crete…Giannis Paraskakis, who confessed to the murder of 59-year-old Suzanne Eaton, [claimed]…watching too much hardcore porn led him to murder…Paraskakis…encountered Eaton on June 2 and…rammed into her twice with his car…he [then] stuffed an unconscious Eaton in the trunk of his vehicle…drove to a remote World War II bunker near Xamoudochori…raped her and left her for dead…Eaton — a molecular biologist at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany — was reported missing by colleagues after she missed several sessions at an Orthodox Academy of Crete conference. Her [remains were] recovered from inside the bunker July 8 with “many broken ribs and face bones as well as multiple injuries to both hands”…cause of death was ruled asphyxiation…
Early one March morning inside an Illinois prison, a tactical unit armed with batons and shields stormed two women’s housing units to round up about 200 handcuffed inmates and march them to a gymnasium…[where] they stood facing the wall for more than an hour…until the guards started taking groups of four to 10 into the adjoining bathroom and beauty shop. There, they were ordered to strip. Standing shoulder to shoulder, women on their periods were asked to remove their tampons and pads…They were ordered to lift their breasts and hair, to cough and squat, and then, finally, to bend over and spread open their vaginal and anal cavities…male guards [stared at] the naked prisoners…[throughout] the humiliating mass strip search…[which was pretended to be] a training exercise for incoming cadets. Now, after eight years of litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit has ruled in a divided 2-1 opinion that the entire 2011 episode was legal…
Another good example of why “legalized” sex work is a bad idea:
[Violent thugs] in Southern California have conducted a massive drug bust that includes 14.9 tons of illegally-grown marijuana in one area…[the thugs also stole] 37 guns, multiple dogs and a honey oil lab at the properties in the Perris area, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles…[pigs raided] 48 [private properties]…and have…[locked] 27 [human beings in cages for farming]…
Oh noes, they grew plants without asking “Mother may I?” first! WHAT MONSTERS!
Not an attempt to control women’s bodies, no sirree:
Phnom Penh Municipal Court…charged three women with human trafficking in connection to a surrogacy business after they were arrested and deported from Vietnam…two of them are still pregnant…
More on Amazon’s campaign to end privacy forever:
On [July 18th], Amazon’s [fascist surveillance] partnership with the Orlando Police Department [supposedly] ended, and…city officials [claim] it didn’t work…[because] the city’s technology infrastructure simply wasn’t advanced enough and didn’t have the bandwidth to support the artificial intelligence software on more than one camera at a time…Amazon proposed to outfit the city with more advanced surveillance cameras…since the cameras already installed downtown weren’t proving to be compatible with Rekognition, but the city [suppos]edly declined. This failure rather neatly illustrates a reality standing in the way of a [fascist] panopticon: extremely normal technical problems. If Amazon wants to market a surveillance product to local governments, it will have to deal with the fact that many municipal computer systems run outdated software, that police departments’ cameras aren’t all high-definition, and not all the equipment is neatly networked with a…reliable internet connection. Amazon appears to be having better luck looking to civilian customers to help it break into the police surveillance market…[by] hand[ing] out free or discounted Ring systems to residents, which allows police to…access footage directly from the…doorbell cameras using Ring’s Neighbors app…cities as big as Dallas, Philadelphia, Birmingham, Phoenix, and Oklahoma City all have joined Ring’s police program, according to a new map from…Fight for the Future…The map also lists smaller cities that have contracts, like Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Maywood, New Jersey…
Pederast politicians are nearly as common as those who hire adult women:
A businessman who [w]as a key witness in…Robert Mueller’s investigation now faces a charge of child sex trafficking in addition to transporting child pornography…Lebanese-American businessman George Nader…transport[ed] a 14-year-old boy from Europe to Washington, D.C. [for sexual purposes] in February 2000…Nader…[w]as [a] liaison between Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and members of President Donald Trump’s transition team. Nader also served as an adviser to the United Arab Emirates…Nader was convicted in the Czech Republic…of 10 cases of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term in 2003….[and] also pleaded guilty to a charge of transporting child-pornography images in Virginia in 1991. The current investigation…began last year when images depicting child pornography and bestiality were found on his phone after it was [seized] under a search warrant connected to the Mueller probe…
More from Liz Brown on the Epstein case:
R. Kelly. Jeffrey Epstein. Keith Raniere. For more than a decade, each of these men escaped largely unscathed as allegations of sexual misconduct — sometimes involving minors — piled up…the recent prosecution of all three on federal sex crime charges…represent all-too-rare instances of “sex trafficking” cases that seem to involve real predatory behavior. It’s a nice change. In recent years, sex trafficking charges have largely been lobbed against sex workers and those who work with them. In both the media and the halls of justice these days, the terms “sex trafficking” and “human trafficking” are often used interchangeably with “prostitution”…“Human trafficking operations” are all too frequently just rebranded stings…The Mann Act is a favorite for federal prosecutors wanting to butt into prostitution stings when there are no minors or evidence of coercion. That’s because the law prevents driving another person — technically it’s gender neutral, but in practice these cases almost always involve a female sex worker — across state lines for prostitution purposes…In its annual Operation Cross Country, the FBI often ratchets up federal arrest numbers by conducting stings in cities like Kansas City, where driving from one part of the city to another means crossing from Kansas into Missouri…
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